Chapter 71
The moment he heard that, Zhou Zili suddenly looked up and turned toward Lin Zhiqiao, clearly startled that he somehow knew about his sister.
But at least Zhou Zili did not keep getting into the car. Lin Zhiqiao instantly felt a huge wave of relief.
A moment later, he finally made it to the front gate.
Lin Zhiqiao was panting hard from the run, thinking to himself that it was a good thing he exercised a little in daily life, otherwise he never would have made it.
But after catching up, he suddenly found himself at a loss.
[So how am I supposed to tell Li-baby that your sister is fine, and that this was all just one of the twins’ “pranks”?]
[Even if I say it, he won’t believe me, right? Wuwu, there’s no way to explain how I know this, QAQ!]
While Lin Zhiqiao was struggling over what to say, he had no idea that Zhou Zili had already heard every word of his inner muttering.
Zhou Zili actually knew that more than ninety percent of what came out of the twins’ mouths was unreliable.
But this was about his younger sister. He had immediately tried calling both his brother and sister, yet neither of them answered.
Even if there was only the tiniest one-in-ten-thousand chance, Zhou Zili did not dare gamble on it.
By the time he heard Lin Zhiqiao’s thoughts, he had calmed down a little and was no longer as panicked as before.
Seeing Lin Zhiqiao’s hesitant expression, clearly wanting to speak but not knowing where to begin, Zhou Zili took the initiative and asked, “Assistant Lin, you just said my sister is fine?”
Lin Zhiqiao nodded, his brain spinning at full speed as he tried to come up with some reasonable explanation that could convince him.
But Zhou Zili did not ask anything else. He simply said softly, “Could I borrow your phone for a moment?”
Lin Zhiqiao blinked. “Huh?”
Yet he had already instinctively taken his phone out of his pocket and handed it over.
“I can’t get through to my brother or sister,” Zhou Zili explained as he took the phone. “So I want to try using yours.”
Lin Zhiqiao gave an absent-minded oh, still confused inside.
If his brother and sister were not picking up, then shouldn’t switching phones still end the same way?
And yet this time, using Lin Zhiqiao’s phone, Zhou Zili actually got through to his sister.
After a few short beep— tones, a young female voice rang out on the line, tinged with impatience. “Who is this?”
Lin Zhiqiao’s eyes widened. [It actually went through!]
Apparently not getting any response, the girl on the other end urged, “What is it? Sales call or scam?”
Zhou Zili opened his mouth, and only after a long moment did he say, “It’s me.”
The voice on the other end froze abruptly. Before Zhou Zili could say anything else, urgent beeping came from the receiver.
His sister had hung up.
Lin Zhiqiao was baffled and shocked. [Huh? Why’d she hang up? They hadn’t even said anything yet!]
But Zhou Zili had already gotten the information he wanted.
He did not look surprised at all that his sister had hung up. Instead, he let out a long breath, his expression tinged with fatigue and helplessness.
“Sorry for causing trouble for all of you.” Zhou Zili handed the phone back to Lin Zhiqiao. “I couldn’t get through to Xiaoyu or Xiaoming, so I panicked and forgot I should have told you first…”
“It’s okay. Just don’t forget next time if something happens.” Lin Zhiqiao shook his head. “Your sister really is okay?”
“Mm, she’s fine,” Zhou Zili said.
The call had been very short, but Zhou Zili could still tell from his younger sister Zhou Yu’s tone, as well as the noisy music in the background, that she was most likely out somewhere having fun. She was definitely not in the hospital, and even less likely to be having any kind of physical episode.
Lin Zhiqiao let out another oh and did not press further.
“Sir, sorry, I probably won’t need the ride after all.” Zhou Zili leaned over to speak to the driver. Even though he canceled the car, he still paid the waiting fee online and added an extra tip on top of it.
Only then did the two of them finally start heading back toward the training building.
Lin Zhiqiao could not help muttering in his heart, [But this is way too weird, right? How come Li-baby’s calls wouldn’t go through, but the moment I call, it works?]
Zhou Zili lowered his eyelashes, the corners of his lips tightening almost imperceptibly for a moment.
‘I also think it’s strange. His sister’s attitude is really off. [frowning.jpg]’
‘Is Li-baby not close with his younger brother and sister? But how could that be? He works this hard to support them, and he’s even trying to pay for his sister’s treatment. Their relationship should be really good…’
‘I have a very bad feeling about this. I hope I’m wrong, otherwise Li-baby is way too pitiful, QAQ.’
‘Looking at Li-baby’s expression, it feels like he’s already used to his sister’s attitude. [heartbroken.jpg]’
‘Whispering this, but… I kind of feel like the brother and sister not answering the phone might’ve been pre-arranged with the twins. Otherwise how could it be such a coincidence? The twins said something happened to the sister, and then the brother and sister both conveniently stopped answering, so Li-baby couldn’t confirm the truth.’
‘No way? If that’s true, then the younger brother and sister are such ungrateful little wolves. [sharp inhale.jpg]’
The two of them barely made it back in time for the evaluation.
The twins were still standing by the window. Seeing Zhou Zili make it in time, they looked extremely disappointed. Even the way they looked at Lin Zhiqiao carried a trace of hostility.
Lin Zhiqiao did not care in the slightest. Ji Ran, on the other hand, frowned, took a few long strides to Lin Zhiqiao’s side, blocked the twins’ line of sight from him, then turned back and glared viciously at them.
The Heng family and the Ji family had had business dealings before, and the three of them had met many times. Naturally, they all knew each other’s backgrounds.
The Heng family was no match for the Ji family, and Heng Yang and Heng Xing both knew that.
Seeing Ji Ran openly protect Lin Zhiqiao like that, the twins exchanged a glance and could only look away and drop it.
It was soon Zhou Zili’s turn to perform in the evaluation.
Fortunately, his mental state was very steady, and his own ability was solid. Even after going through such a ridiculous sudden incident, his performance was not affected.
All three mentors gave him very good scores.
The twins, on the other hand, did not perform well this time. They landed dead last in Class A. If anyone from Class B or Class C made a strong enough leap, their places in Class A would be gone.
The evaluation lasted all day, and everyone’s results were announced that same day.
Among the ten people in Class A, everyone else’s ranking remained stable. Only the twins dropped down to Class B.
‘So satisfying.’
‘The twins getting good scores would’ve been the real miracle. I haven’t seen them train properly even once these past few days. [eye roll.jpg]’
‘Were they too busy plotting how to mess with our Li-baby? [cat frown.jpg]’
‘People who don’t respect the stage should just get eliminated as early as possible.’
After the evaluation ended, Director Xu called the twins in for a talk.
Lin Zhiqiao’s instincts told him it was because of Zhou Zili’s matter. His curiosity flared, and he secretly pressed himself up against the crack of the door, trying to follow what was happening inside.
Director Xu had shut the door tightly, so the voices inside sounded muffled and unclear.
Lin Zhiqiao heard the younger twin, Heng Xing, say, “It was his sister who called and told us… We were only kindly passing the message on to Zhou Zili. How were we supposed to know his sister was joking with us…”
Lin Zhiqiao: [??? What kind of trash excuse is that?!]
Unfortunately, even though everyone present knew the twins were full of nonsense, no one had evidence proving they were lying.
Unless they could get Zhou Zili’s sister to testify herself.
But sadly, even Zhou Zili could not get in contact with his sister, let alone get her to speak up for him.
The twins came out soon after.
Lin Zhiqiao poked his head into Director Xu’s room and saw her rubbing her temples, looking very unwell. “…Director Xu?”
Director Xu looked up. “Ah, it’s Xiao Qiao.”
Lin Zhiqiao nodded and secretly pointed in the direction the twins had gone. “They…”
“For now, there’s nothing I can do to them.” Director Xu spread her hands, clearly helpless.
Lin Zhiqiao sighed, but he could understand Director Xu’s position.
When there was no evidence, even if everyone understood the truth, nothing could be done directly to the twins.
Besides, today was only a reshuffling of classes after the evaluation. There was no elimination round yet. Even if they wanted to kick the twins out of the show immediately, they had no suitable excuse or justification.
“But I didn’t turn off the livestream just now.” Director Xu blinked. “Today they got lucky. But next elimination round… who knows?”
Lin Zhiqiao’s eyes immediately lit up.
‘Good good good, so that’s why the livestream was still on just now. Director Xu did it on purpose. [doghead.jpg]’
‘So we could all see the twins’ true colors clearly.’
‘In a survival show, whether contestants advance depends mostly on us viewers’ votes, right? So if none of us vote for the twins during the elimination round, won’t they just get kicked out?’
‘I’m saving my votes for Ran-baby, Xia-baby, and Li-baby. [please debut on the spot! .jpg]’
‘Though honestly, the twins probably don’t care whether they debut or not. It doesn’t really seem like being eliminated would affect them much…’
‘Who cares? As long as those scumbags stay away from our Li-baby. [scumbags get lost.jpg]’
Getting what was, overall, a fairly satisfying answer from Director Xu, Lin Zhiqiao finally relaxed a little.
Ji Ran, Ji Yuan, and the others did not dare knock on Director Xu’s door, so they had been waiting nearby.
Lin Zhiqiao repeated Director Xu’s words to them.
Ji Ran was indignant. “That’s still way too easy on them.”
Lin Zhiqiao thought the same.
And then he saw Ji Ran, after grumbling angrily for quite a while, suddenly pull out his phone and make a call.
“Dad, doesn’t our family have some business collaboration with the Heng family lately?”
Father Ji’s voice came from the other end. “Yeah, we do. What’s wrong?”
“Cancel it,” Ji Ran said. “The Heng family has character problems. Their twin sons even tried to bully our Xiao Qiao. Don’t work with them anymore. It’s disgusting.”
Lin Zhiqiao’s eyes widened. He could not help asking Ji Yuan beside him, “Bullying me? When did that happen?”
Ji Yuan answered in a small voice, “They glared at you. Several times!”
Lin Zhiqiao fell silent for a long moment. [That counts too…?]
Ji Ran, Cheng Xia, and Ji Yuan exchanged glances, and each of them clearly saw the words of course it counts in the others’ eyes.
[But canceling a partnership that casually — would Uncle Ji really agree? Business cooperation isn’t some kind of game…]
The very next second, Lin Zhiqiao heard the voice on the other end say, “There was something like that?! Fine, fine, fine, Dad will go cancel the cooperation right now!”
Father Ji sounded furious. “Is Xiao Qiao okay? He doesn’t have much of a background on his own, so make sure you take care of him. Don’t you dare let anyone bully him!”
Ji Ran responded immediately, “Don’t worry, don’t worry. As long as I’m here, not a single hair on his head will be touched!”
Lin Zhiqiao did not even know how many times he had already been shocked. [He… he agreed! I knew the Ji family dotes on their kids, but I didn’t know they doted on them this much!]
The three of them exchanged glances again.
It was true that Father Ji adored his children, but this time… that was not actually why he had agreed so quickly. It was because Ji Ran had mentioned Lin Zhiqiao.
To the Ji family, Lin Zhiqiao was the benefactor who had saved both of their children and helped the Ji family find their real young master.
So of course the Heng family, who had bullied their benefactor, would no longer have any chance of working with them.
This round, they were the ones benefiting from Lin Zhiqiao’s light.
